Prince Harry is planning to hold an “intimate” public conversation with a hard-left trauma expert who has compared Hamas terrorists to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Gabor Maté, who will take part in the livestreamed discussion with the prince on Saturday, wrote in a 2014 article for the Toronto Star: “The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.”
In the same article, he defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians. “Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm,” he wrote.
During the 2021 Gaza conflict, Maté, 79, said in a livestream broadcast that Hamas was “nothing compared to the terrorism of the Israeli government”, claiming that Israel wanted to take over the whole land of “biblical Palestine” beyond the Jordan.
He also appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast, saying of Israel: “It’s the longest ethnic-cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s still going on.” He went on to describe Gaza as “the world’s largest outdoor prison”.
Priince Harry Apple TV
Will Harry turn up (Photo: Apple TV)
Prince Harry is planning to hold an “intimate” public conversation with a hard-left trauma expert who has compared Hamas terrorists to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Gabor Maté, who will take part in the livestreamed discussion with the prince on Saturday, wrote in a 2014 article for the Toronto Star: “The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.”
In the same article, he defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians. “Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm,” he wrote.
During the 2021 Gaza conflict, Maté, 79, said in a livestream broadcast that Hamas was “nothing compared to the terrorism of the Israeli government”, claiming that Israel wanted to take over the whole land of “biblical Palestine” beyond the Jordan.
He also appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast, saying of Israel: “It’s the longest ethnic-cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s still going on.” He went on to describe Gaza as “the world’s largest outdoor prison”.
He was also clear that in his view, “there are no two sides” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Gras Gabr Mat (5)
Dr Gabor Maté (Image: screenshot)
He has spoken warmly of former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters, who was recently described by a former colleague’s wife as “antisemitic to [his] rotten core”.
The trauma expert has appeared in discussions hosted by a far-left, pro-Kremlin blog and defended former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn against charges of antisemitism.
Prince Harry and Maté, who is a Holocaust survivor, are due to discuss “living with loss and the importance of personal healing” in the context of Harry’s memoir, Spare, which describes in detail his grief after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Maté has often spoken of his journey from being a Zionist recognising the desire for a Jewish state in the wake of the Holocaust, to an ardent critic of the “colonial” and “cruel” state.
He has also appeared several times in conversation for the YouTube channel of far-left, pro-Kremlin fringe news blog The Grayzone, to which his son, Aaron, is a key contributor.
In conversation with Aaron in November 2019 about “the misuse of antisemitism”, he defended disgraced former Labour leader Corbyn, saying: “You also point out just how manipulative it is to call Corbyn an antisemite…
“So, Corbyn goes to this rally where this Jewish person speaks, and Corbyn’s accused of being an antisemite because he’s present when a Jew criticises or points out similarities between the ghettoisation of Gaza and the ghettoisation of Jews.”
In May 2021, during the Israel-Hamas war, Maté appeared on another Grayzone livestream, speaking alongside his son, Aaron; founder of Grayzone Max Blumenthal, who was listed in the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s top 10 antisemites in 2013; and Waters.
During the conversation, Maté praised Blumenthal for being listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre as an antisemite and made several inflammatory statements, including claiming that “[Israelis] grow up under a certain ideological framework in which the Arab is less than human”.
At the end of the talk, in which others described the Labour antisemitism crisis as a “witch hunt”, said that Corbyn had been the victim of “Israeli assassination” and framed Hamas as a resistance movement rather than a terror group, Maté said: “It’s a pleasure and it’s a duty to be in this conversation and I’m very grateful to have been a part of it, to meet you, Roger [Waters].”
Roger Waters
Roger Waters (Getty Images)
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish human rights organisation, told the JC: “I am working under the assumption that the Prince did not know this person’s political bias, his hatred for the Jewish state, his cavorting with antisemites and his covering for Hamas terrorists.
“This is a Holocaust survivor whose worldview sets him apart from 99 per cent of world Jewry.
“As such, whoever made the arrangements to have this individual appear with Prince Harry, did him no favours.
“If Prince Harry knew this man’s record and still chose him for the interview, our Centre would criticise the prince for such an inappropriate choice.”
Maté was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1944, as the industrial murder of Jews was at its peak.
When he was five months old, his maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz.
When he was one year old, his mother left him in the care of a stranger in order to save his life.
His aunt disappeared during the war, and his father was a forced labourer for the Nazis.
In 1956, his family emigrated to Canada, and he eventually studied medicine, specialising in addiction and trauma.
Some of his work is based on his experience in the Holocaust and its aftermath.
In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Canada.
Although he started as a supporter of the Jewish state, in later life Maté became a vocal critic of Israel.
Representatives for Prince Harry, Maté, and Penguin Random House were approached for comment.
